The problem with growing download sizes Digital distribution has been good for PC gaming. The convenience, sales, and increased exposure for small developers have made our hobby significantly more accessible. The increase in download sizes over the last few years, however, is starting to make some games a little less accessible. Big-budget games now come in tens of gigabytes, and while increased data use is a natural part of evolving technology, internet speeds for a lot of people aren't keeping up. PC Gamer

Intel's 5th generation unlocked Broadwell desktop, socketed processors to arrive in mid-2015 Intel's 5th generation Broadwell processors are launching for the desktop market in mid-2015 as reported in a slide shown by chief reporter of HKEPC, Lam Chi-Kui. The slide does not provide any additional information but confirms that socketed processors will be available in the Broadwell lineup for the current LGA 1150 boards and will be launching in June 2015 which points to a Computex announcement. WCCFtech

Microsoft, once an antitrust target, is now Google's regulatory scold Not long ago, Microsoft was the scourge of European antitrust regulators. It was fined once, twice, three and four times. Finally, after Microsoft paid more than $3 billion, Europe left it alone. Now, Google is firmly in Europe's cross hairs: Antitrust regulators on Wednesday formally accused the company of abusing its dominance. And Microsoft is relishing a second act in Brussels, playing the role of scold instead of victim. The NY Times

Home automation systems - a consumer checklist The Internet of Things (IoT) concept has gained a lot of traction over the last couple of years. One of the main applications of IoT lies in the home automation space. Consumers have many options in this space, but none of them have the right combination of comprehensiveness, economy, extensibility and ease of use. We provided an introduction to IoT / home automation back in 2012, and the space has rapidly evolved since then. AnandTech

This emulator turns an Arduino Uno into an Apple II The Apple II holds a special place, not just as a piece of computing history, but also in the hearts of lots of the people that used it back in the day. Alongside machines like the TRS-80 and, at least over here in Britain, the BBC Model B -- which was one of the inspirations behind the Raspberry Pi -- it's one of the machines we grew up with, and for a lot of us, it’s the machine we cut our teeth on when we were kids. Makezine

Statistics will crack your password When hackers or penetration testers compromise a system and want access to clear text passwords from a database dump, they must first crack the password hashes that are stored. Many attackers approach this concept headfirst: They try any arbitrary password attack they feel like trying with little reasoning. This discussion will demonstrate some effective methodologies for password cracking and how statistical analysis of passwords can be used in conjunction with tools to create a time boxed approach to efficient and successful cracking. Praetorian

How a small studio's chance at the big time died at Microsoft's doorstep One week in early February, three top employees from the independent game studio Darkside Games flew to Redmond, Washington for a secret meeting with Microsoft. Over the course of the meeting, which lasted two days, Darkside’s leadership tried to convince the mega-corporation to give them a few more million dollars, according to two people familiar with the situation. Kotaku

Every indie developer should read this It's OK to develop videogames outside of the business frameworks that we’ve built around games. Being a hobbyist does not make your work inferior. Being a hobbyist does not mean you are playing at being a developer. Being a hobbyist does not mean you are of less worth or less serious about what you do. There are no videogame tourists. There is no minimum level of required commitment. You don't have to make games to support yourself making games. Rob Remakes (also, Videogames Inc.: Unraveling the corporate ownership of game developers)

The crazy-tiny next generation of computers When Prabal Dutta accidentally drops a computer, nothing breaks. There's no crash. The only sound you might hear is a prolonged groan. That's because these computers are just one cubic millimeter in size, and once they hit the floor, they’re gone. "We just lose them," Dutta says. "It's worse than jewelry." To drive the point home, Dutta, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, emails me a photo of 50 of these computers. They barely fill a thimble halfway to its brim. Medium (also, Why a digital bee brain is piloting a drone w/ video below)

Farewell, beloved Rat Farewell, beloved Rat. You've been a faithful companion, constantly perched next to my right hand and always eager for the next opportunity to dart across my desktop. I will miss you terribly. More than any other mouse, you really get me. Your pliable body is molded just for my grip, a perfectly shaped and weighted handful to accommodate my odd-sized mitts. You indulge other eccentricities, like my need to scroll sideways in Excel... The Tech Report

Moving to Mars On a clear, cold day in March, 1898, a converted seal-hunting ship named the Belgica gave up struggling against the pack ice of the Bellingshausen Sea and resigned itself to the impending Antarctic winter. The ship was carrying a scientific expedition with an international crew, rare in that phase of polar exploration: nine Belgians, six Norwegians, two Poles, a Romanian, and an American, the ship's doctor. The New Yorker

Meet George -- 1958's one-of-a-kind analog computer -- Vintage Computer Festival East The Vintage Computer Festival East is a once-a-year museum exhibit in Wall, New Jersey that shows off vacuum tube and transistor computers from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. While our own John Timmer visited the museum several years ago, we were long overdue to check back on the exhibition. VCF's newest addition made the trip well-worth it. Ars Technica

Wikimania Over 200 times a second, half a billion times a month, somebody clicks on Wikipedia. It's the greatest argument-settler wrought by man, or at least the fastest, perfectly suited to our era of instant gratification. When it debuted 14 years ago, the online encyclopedia was a novelty, its accuracy hit or miss. Now it's one of the world's busiest websites, its reliability vastly improved, but not quite perfect. CBS

The clone that wasn't Could you design a brand-new game using only a deck of classic playing cards? It’s a cool idea -- repurposing familiar components in an original context. But the design for the game that would become Donsol was born out of necessity, the mother of invention. A pack of cards was all the creators had on hand.Boing Boing